As Canadians, we live in a nation where hockey is religion and the chest-beating slogan of Team Canada at the Sochi Olympic Games last February was: We Are Winter.

But every four years, come summertime, Canadian national identity goes into rewind mode. With the World Cup of Soccer, millions of people in this nation look back to their countries of origin and their own family trees to find teams to support.

To be sure, this is in large part because Canada is not a soccer power. Canada has only made it to the FIFA World Cup once since 1930, to Mexico in 1986, and even then, it failed to score at all through three games.

Sergei Rodionov of the USSR holds the ball up against Gerry Gray of Canada during the FIFA World Cup Finals 1986 Group C match between the USSR and Canada. (Photo by Michael King/Getty Images)

And so with the 2014 World Cup set to begin Thursday in Brazil, with the host national Brazilian team opening up competition against Croatia, Canadians are in for a month-long celebration of Canada’s diversity.

Up to four times a day at the height of competition, Canadians will pack cafés in neighbourhoods that are outposts of far-off motherlands. In Montreal, St-Laurent Blvd. hosts Little Portugal, Little Spain and Little Italy just blocks apart. Montrealers of Greek origin have Parc Ave. in Mile End. Backers of France are partial to St-Denis St. in the Plateau. The farther west you go on Montreal Island, support for England looms ever larger.

When their teams win, fans pour out into the streets to celebrate, wave flags and chant national soccer anthems. Or they climb into cars and do victory laps of the city, honking as they go.

French soccer fans Lea Streliski, Matthieu Streliski, and Sebastien Dreyfuss (left to right) react to a missed opportunity at the the Bar L’Barouf in Montreal in this file photo. (Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – Marcos Townsend)

The World Cup in Brazil will feature competition among men exclusively. In recent years, women’s soccer has grown in popularity, notably in Canada. Lately, Canadian women have shone more brightly on the world stage, winning the bronze medal at the London Olympic Games in 2012. In fact, Canada will play host to the FIFA Women’s World Cup next year — and games are to be played nationwide.

Some Canadian cities — including Montreal — now have North American professional teams of our own to cheer for, with the rise of MLS soccer.

In parks in and around Montreal and other large Canadian cities, soccer pitches have been replacing baseball diamonds as minor soccer has become a major sporting activity for Canadian children.

There is reason to hope that some of those boys, at least, now starring at the neighbourhood level will grow up one day to help bring Canadian men back into the World Cup.

In the meantime, we will get to revel in our ethnic roots through the world’s No. 1 sport. We may cheer for this country or that one, but the World Cup still knits us together, and defines Canada as one of those few places in the world where there is strong support for a large number of participating nations.

How many other countries can make that same boast? We Are Winter. But once every four years, We Are the World Cup, too.